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Motifs — first 20 of 32
- Changeling. Fairy steals child from cradle and leaves fairy substitute. Changeling is usually mature and only seems to be a child. F321.1
- Changeling deceived into betraying his age. F321.1.1
- Changeling betrays his age when his wonder is excited. Usually pottage is boiled in an eggshell. The changeling: "I shall soon be a hundred years old but I never saw this done before!" F321.1.1.1
- Changeling plays on pipe and thus betrays his maturity. F321.1.1.2
- Changeling dances wild dance to music, betrays maturity. F321.1.1.2.1
- Changeling addresses woman in verse and thus betrays maturity. F321.1.1.3
- Changeling shows supernatural power to work and thus betrays maturity. F321.1.1.4
- Changeling calculates his age by the age of the forest. "I have seen the forest grow up three times." F321.1.1.5
- Threat to throw on fire causes changeling to cry out and betray his nature. F321.1.1.6
- Whipping causes changeling to betray his nature. F321.1.1.7
- Characteristics of changeling. F321.1.2
- Changeling has abnormal features or growth. Limbs grow too rapidly, head is too big, or he is slow to learn to walk, or the like. F321.1.2.1
- Changeling is always hungry, demands food all the time. F321.1.2.2
- Changeling is sickly (often the fairy exchanged for a baby is an elderly, infirm member of the fairy clan whom the fairies are tired of caring for). F321.1.2.3
- Exorcising a changeling. F321.1.3
- Disposing of a changeling. F321.1.4
- Changeling thrown into water and thus banished. F321.1.4.1
- Changeling thrown into ravine and thus banished. F321.1.4.2
- Changeling thrown on fire and thus banished. (Cf. F321.1.4.5.) F321.1.4.3
- Changeling left on hill (dunghill, barrow etc.) and thus banished. F321.1.4.4